@Raptor: You are very right in saying development freedom is not really a thing when profits must be made. They cannot do very many things that might be fun and fulfilling to create if they simply won't sell. As such, no moral or sexism argument can really make this decision for them if they wish to make a profit upon a game that will be good regardless of the armor art styles.
That being said, there is a way to find a balance between their personal choices as a company, the requests of their fans, and the needs they must fulfill to sell to the mass market beyond their hardcore fans (usually this is where things become more problematic, imo, and why smaller budget games for a fanbase might be the most consistent and least sacrificial method).
I think we can probably all be happy/charitable about the art so long as we are not seeing the two extremes of near-nakedness and walking castle, and let them decide further at this point what they need to do to sell their game. I just want to avoid the high heels and bikini armor, since I think it looks ridiculous and doesn't fit with my conception of an adventuring woman at all (i.e. it actively rips me out of taking her seriously as a character). If I don't have to wear that, I can deal with armor showing off more skin than is healthy practically.
Disclaimer: I haven't read the whole thread.
That said, are you suggesting that revealing armour is an important sales point for a majority of people out there? Are there really that many people out there who think: "This is a pretty good game, but the women don't show enough skin, so I won't buy it."? I don't think so. There's a reason it's called eye candy - it's nice to look at (not for everyone, of course, especially people like you and me who prefer immersion), but nobody would not buy a good game because of that.
Revealing armour in box art and promotional stuff naturally gets more attention, but that's a different matter.
And lastly, I fully expect full plate armour to look like a walking castle - not as over the top as in the first post here, because that suggests armour half a meter thick, but definitely bulky, even on a woman. I can't imagine anyone designing lighter armour like a leather or chain mail shirt to look bulky, so I wouldn't expect a castle there.
My hope is that robes and other mage-y outfits aren't overly sexy, at least not exclusively. I prefer playing wizards, mages and other magic users and some games don't leave me any choice but to leave my female characters half naked. On the other hand, I hope they don't have only robes - This video makes a good case. Just consider his usage of the word gay as a synonym for gaudy.
